


Short-term gain

by Keenir



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, Gen, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-12
Updated: 2014-12-12
Packaged: 2018-03-01 03:44:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2758325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU during <span class="u">Crossroads of Destiny</span> - Zuko moves against Azula.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Short-term gain

AU from during the episode Crossroads of Destiny.  
  
  
The fight was continuing, Zuko knew.  Azula vs the Avatar.  
  
Both of whom he would have been happy to see the end of.  
  
 _Save the Avatar by siding against my sister, that gains me nothing but an end to her conniving, plotting, and mockery._  
  
 _Save my sister by siding against the Avatar, that opens the possibility of returning home in good standing._  
  
And, almost too late, as he was starting to move towards the fight, Zuko remembered one other: _It isn't just the two of them - Katara's there.  She's friends with the Avatar, but in siding with her, I wouldn't neccessarily always be helping him,_ and Zuko hurried to where lightning struck water again and again.  
  


* * *

  
  
The stalemate- the four of them (Azula, Katara, Zuko, Aang) staring at one another, ready to resume bending at one another - broke when Zuko fired at Azula, which she deflected handily.  
  
"That was a mistake, brother," she said.  "But not a surprise."  A slight nod of her head, and down from the upper walls and ceiling came -  "Have you met the Dai Li?"  
  
"We have," Katara said.  "Ba Sing Se's enforcers.  Self-proclaimed protectors."  
  
"A passable description," Azula agreed.  
  
"Long Feng made a deal with you?" Aang asked her.  
  
"He did - and that's how he lost them."  
  
"Then I have a question for the Dai Li," Zuko said.  To them, he asked, "My sister Azula is the vanguard of the Fire Naiton, and soon she'll be the reigning Fire Lord.  I am no longer heir nor vanguard.  Which of us poses the greater danger to your city?"  It did occur to Zuko that they could solve their problems by disposing of _both_ members of the Fire Nation's royal family.   _Well, at least she can't win._  
  
Their answer came seconds later, as sheets of heavy stone pinned Azula where she stood, effectively wiping her triumphant look off her face.  
  
Aang didn't relax  - still not feeling this was better; didn't feel it was anything but a return to their early circumstances, _Only now Zuko's got the resources of the Earth Kingdom to hunt me down, not the Fire Nation's._  
  
'This way," one member of the Dai Li said to Zuko while Azula, still in-rock, was carted away.  
  
"What now?" Katara asked.  
  
The Dai Li looked to Zuko, who gave a nod so they'd answer her.  
  
The agent said, "There is much to be determined.  Your friends await above."  
  
"And your King?" Katara asked.  
  
"Alive.  If he is to be deposed, it may not be at our hands."  
  
"Wait," Aang said.  "Are you saying that Zuko is -"  
  
Azula began laughing, the sound echoing in the tunnel.  "Trapped."  
  


* * *

  
  
Aang looked around the mapping table, seeing his friends and not-currently-enemies here with him.   _The Earth King's back where he was, on the throne of Ba Sing Se.  Azula's locked away, with some of the city's best benders working on a supercell to hold her safely for everyone.  Long Feng's behaving himself, as is Zuko.  Then again, with how Katara and Toph are banging everyones' heads together, maybe that's not so surprising that an arrangement was hammered out.  Wait, was that an earth pun?_  
  
"Truly?" Long Feng inquired, skeptical to put it mildly.  "You would refuse the post?"  
  
"I have no desire to learn the minutia," Zuko said.  "You already know it."  
  
Long Feng gave a shallow bow - exceedingly so, but to those familiar with protocols of royal courts, it was evident - to Zuko.  
  
"Then its settled," said the King.  "Long Feng, I appoint you to be Prime Minister of Inside; your authority is to remain within the walls of Ba Sing Se.  Zuko, I appoint you to be the Prime Minister of Outside; Ba Sing Se's relations with other Nations, is where I give you authority.  My own authority is everything else."  
  
"And over the two of us," Long Feng said before Zuko could or might.   _Better to circumscribe my reach, abd be thought better - than to be overshadowed by him doing the same first, and the king asking why_ I _did not offer it._  
  
Zuko knew _the Avatar can leave at any time, and his friends'll go with him, undoubtedly; and I can't.  Azula was right: I'm trapped here._


End file.
